Review: Sordin Supreme Pro-X Slim ear muffs

The Sordin Supreme Pro-X Slim is a premium hearing protector designed to be comfortable and functional in a variety of shooting and hunting situations. This Slim version is an update of a previous model, made more streamlined with a narrower profile.

Sordin has plenty of runs on the board when it comes to high-quality hearing protection. It produces hearing protection for military applications and puts similar technology into its commercial products to ensure they will last.

The Sordins are an firm and very comfortable fit, which in itself helps increase hearing protection

The headband joining the cups together has a leather wrap on it for comfort and is wide enough to provide proper fit and stability on all head shapes. The band attaches to the cups with metal feet that are locked in place with plastic covers that can be loosened with your fingers, allowing you to quickly adjust how they fit and then be confident the sizing won’t move after you’ve got it right.

The cups are made of a high-grade plastic, and the ear-pieces are a generous size with a gel-like filling. They fit securely around your ears to maximise the noise cancelling potential, while staying comfortable for use over extended periods.

The outer section of the cups is contoured to give a slim profile which is supposed to make them easy to use for right- and left-handed shooters when shooting different kinds of firearms — particularly those with higher cheek pieces. Having caught my cheek between inferior ear muffs and the stock of my .300 Win Mag before, I can tell you it’s not fun. These Sordins never gave me a problem.

The battery compartment is accessed by unscrewing a cap on the back of the right ear-piece and secured with a piece of cord so you can’t lose it. It took a bit of mucking around to get both AAA batteries into the compartment but with a couple of quick shakes they fitted snugly.

You can expect up to 400 hours of battery life.

They’re so comfortable and the audio so well metered that you can forget you’re wearing them

The back of the left ear-piece has a 3.5mm auxiliary jack. Sordin includes a cable in the box for you. I imagine some people riding in groups on quad bikes would benefit from radio communication through this feature. It’s also somewhere you can plug in a phone and play music if you feel inclined to get some beats going.

The front of each ear cup has a microphone for picking up ambient noise, protected by a piece of mesh and rubber stopper around the edges. It adds to the water resistance and durability.

Besides the physical comfort and durability offered by these hearing protectors, the real power is in the audio profiles – all four of them: hunting, focus, shooting and comms.

At first, I thought this was a bit much to choose from, but after using them in a few situations I came to appreciate the versatility. Switching between each profile is intuitive.

The different sound profiles make these electronic hearing protectors useful for more than just hunting and range work

Hunting mode is perhaps the closest to what most users would come to expect from noise-cancelling hearing protection. It amplifies some ambient sound, such as speech or environmental noise, while cutting louder noises like gunshots.

For a bit more of a good thing, select focus mode, which amplifies all ambient noise, yet still cuts out the gunshots.

Shooting mode was designed for situations that are louder than a typical hunting scenario, but when it might still be important to maintain a conversation.

Comms mode is for the loudest situations and involves passive attenuation only. This is the mode where the auxiliary input is activated.

Spotlighting from my LandCruiser, I went between all the modes to see what I liked the best. I wanted to hear what was going on OK, but maintain a conversation with my friend in the cab. Hunting and focus modes provided great overall clarity but the engine noise was far too distracting. Shooting mode was the most suitable as it allowed me to maintain a conversation in the cab while driving around.

On a night stalk around a rye grass paddock, hunting and focus modes performed well. Besides being able to hear the pigs arguing among themselves from a fair way off, I could hear my footsteps and maintain a conversation with my friend who was whispering about two metres to my side.

Stalking in the day provided similar results, and the ability to raise or lower the volume based on the ambient noise went a long way to ensuring I never got tired of the noise coming through the unit.

There is also a battery saving feature that switches the unit off if no activity has been detected after four hours, but it does give you a warning beep two minutes before shutting off in case you wish to interrupt the shutdown.

The Sordin Pro-X Slim is a premium product designed for people who want the ultimate in comfort, durability and versatility. They’re not cheap at around $569, but they are head and shoulders above any similar products I have tested.

The sound profiles are pitched just right for the different hunting and shooting situations that many people around the country may find themselves in and they’re durable enough that they should serve you well for many years.

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